The Scottish Ensemble with guitarist Sean Shibe perform a thoughtful programme of ancient and modern Christmas-themed music in a candlelit St John’s Kirk.
In Germany, the Christmas Oratorio is performed with the same frequency during the holiday season as Messiah in English-speaking countries. In Boston, the BSO gives its first performance!
Prelude – Skydiving from a Dream from Scottish Ensemble and Andersson Dance: mesmeric choreographed Bach and Lutosławski with a blistering performance of Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue played from memory and on the move. Thrilling, daring and exciting.
By using Schumann’s Novelletten to draw a broad dramaturgical bow over the whole evening, Martin Helmchen stands on his own as a bold and highly creative pianist.
Powerful and impressive playing from the LSO and Jaime Martín in a Spanish-themed first half (also featuring Christian Tetzlaff), with a more nuanced array of Stravinskian colour in the second half.
Viktoria Mullova is dazzling in Sibelius' Violin Concerto but the audience of Sage Gateshead fail to make their mark when asked to sing along to Finlandia.
Pared-down forces of the ACO performed pared down masterpieces, in a brilliantly conceived programme which included works by Wagner, Strauss and Mozart.
The title of the latest programme by the Australian Chamber Orchestra is simply: Goldberg Variations. While Bernard Labadie’s ingenious arrangement of JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string orchestra takes up all of the second half of the programme, the first half was no less interesting.
The “Festival Tour” and its three-venue concerts of the Davos Festival programme included almost as many visual and outdoor delights as it did musical treats.
Light shines through tears in a concert with a luxurious line-up of VOCES8, the Academey of Ancient Music and Robert Hollingworth at the Milton Abbey Music Festival in Dorset.
A disparate set of pieces are connected to an intriguing theme in mostly successful performances, including Shostakovich from cellist Alisa Weilerstein.
A generous programme by Alban Gerhardt and Víkingur Ólafsson saw a tale of two halves, with the classical poise of the first half and the more extrovert showpieces of the second.
Ilya Gringolts and Maxim Vengerov gave world-class performances of landmark pieces by Bach and Bartók, with a generous sprinkling of Prokofiev and Wieniawski giving extra sparkle.
Composer-pianist, Vestards Shimkus gives a compelling rendition of his imaginative 9 etudes Dreamscapes, while his Bach-Busoni 9 Chorale Preludes offers more mixed results.
The gut strings and period bows of the Chiaroscuro Quartet cast dramatic light and shade movements on from Bach's The Art of Fugue and quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn.
As part of their swing through some of America’s top concert halls, Isabelle Faust joined Les Violons du Roy to bring Bach and Handel to Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Harry Bicket leads Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus and a fine line-up of soloists in a performance that moves effortlessly between the human and eternal time lines of Bach's St John Passion.
Conductor JoAnn Falletta, violinist Alexi Kenney and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra offer up vibrant and vital interpretations of Boulanger, Mozart and Brahms.
To reach the mother lode of Bach's keyboard music, you have to listen to it on harpsichord, and today, no performer embodies that mother lode more than Mahan Esfahani.
Warsaw Philharmonic celebrates the 100th anniversary of Polish independence with performances of great local composers – Lutoslawski, Szymanowski and Szabelski – and Debussy’s La Mer for good measure.
James Ehnes, a violinist of remarkable elegance, was outstanding in Prokofiev's First Concerto infusing richness to the long, introspective melodic lines.
